Compassion Science

A Curated Guide

This guide provides a brief overview of this topic and a curated list of important relevant resources and those frequently cited, referenced, or recommended by current scholars and experts in the field. 

To be sensitive to the suffering of others and have a desire to alleviate that suffering is compassion. Compassion can be thought of as a psychological state, a trait, an emotion, a motivation, a behavior, or a combination of the foregoing. It has long been considered a philosophical and religious virtue, with particular importance in Asian contemplative traditions, but has become the subject of rigorous scientific inquiry over the last 20 years. 

Studies show that humans have evolved an instinct for compassion and that compassion can be further cultivated for physical and mental health, healing, and social  wellbeing. Through meditation and other mental training practices, cultivating compassion has been shown to boost a person’s physical longevity and immunity; foster emotional wellbeing and social connections in daily life; increase positive emotions and the tendency to act for the benefit of someone other than oneself; and lead to functional and structural changes in the brain known as plasticity. Additional findings indicate that meditation on loving-kindness, a Buddhist concept that is distinct from but similar to compassion, and other compassion training programs can strengthen resilience and buffer the symptoms of burnout common among healthcare workers and other caregiving professionals, enabling them to continue their important work.

Studies and other resources highlighted in this guide show that compassion is distinct in neuro-physiological antecedents and correlates as well as behavioral consequences as compared to empathy, altruism, and other states and behaviors associated with prosociality. Many research developments in compassion science are due to strong interdisciplinary collaborations between psychologists, neuroscientists, and therapists on the one hand and contemplative scholars and practitioners, particularly Buddhist, on the other.

Batson, C. D. (2011). Altruism in Humans. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Experimental social psychologist describes three decades of scientific theory and research into the neuroscience and psychological bases of compassion-related prosocial behaviors in humans, altruism motivation, and the empathy-altruism hypothesis.  

Bloom, P. (2016). Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion. New York, NY: Ecco.

Yale researcher explains scientific findings supporting his controversial theory that empathy leads to inequality and immorality and that society would benefit from a more deliberate form of compassion rather than empathy. 

Dalai Lama, T. G., & Ekman, P. (2008). Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion. New York, NY: Holt. This book provides a series of conversations between the spiritual leader, and the psychologist and emotions researcher Ekman on the emotional roots of compassion and the practice, theory, and science of Buddhist meditation.

de Waal, F. (2009). The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society. New York, NY: Crown. Renowned primatologist de Waal describes scientific findings of empathy, compassion, and altruism in animals and how they support the theory that humans evolved to be more compassionate and less selfish than society would have many believe. 

Fredrickson, B. (2013). Love 2.0: Creating Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection. New York, NY: Plume. Positive psychologist describes research and theory on the human capacity for love, connection, and compassion and how these capacities can be strengthened for better health and wellbeing. 

Gilbert, P. & Choden (2014). Mindful Compassion: How the Science of Compassion Can Help You Understand Your Emotions, Live in the Present, and Connect Deeply with Others. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger. Written by the founder of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)—a mental health intervention for depression, shame, self-criticism and other conditions—and a former Buddhist monk, this book describes how compassion-related contemplative practices can be used to overcome emotional and psychological problems. 

Goleman, D., & Davidson, R. (2017). Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. New York, NY: Avery. A neuroscientist and psychologist describe the science of mental training and meditation and the latest research findings that suggest these practices can have short and long-term effects on the brain and behavior for better wellbeing. 

Jinpa, T. (2015). A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives. New York, NY: Hudson Street. Former Buddhist monk and English translator for the Dalai Lama describes Compassion Cultivation Training, which he developed at Stanford University, and the Buddhist psychology and Western science underlying its practice. 

Keltner, D., Marsh, J., and Smith, J. A. (Eds). (2010). The Compassion Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. This is a collection of essays previously published in Greater Good Magazine on theory and research related to the prosocial nature and behavior of humans.

Klein, S. & Dollenmayer, D. (Trans.). (2014).  Survival of the Nicest: How Altruism Made us Human, and Why it Pays to Get Along. New York, NY: The Experiment. Klein presents a comprehensive synthesis of theory and research on the human instinct for prosocial behavior from a range of disciplines including neuroscience, genetics, economics, social psychology, anthropology, history, and contemporary culture.

Kukk, C. L. (2017). The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success. New York, NY: HarperOne. Founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity and Innovation describes scientific support from biology, neuroscience, and economics for the notion that compassion leads to more constructive relationships, improved intelligence, and increased resiliency and is therefore the key to sustainable success. He also shares his own four-step program for cultivating compassion.

Lieberman, M.D. (2013). Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. New York, NY: Crown. Renowned neuroscientist describes how the human brain is so profoundly primed for social connection that it represents a basic instinct and key to human thriving.  

Ricard, M. (2016). Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co. Former geneticist and long-time Buddhist monk Ricard describes how altruistic love is a win-win for individuals and global society and shares practical ways to develop a greater capacity for compassion.

Salzberg, S. (1995). Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Salzburg draws from Buddhist teachings, guided meditation practices, and her own experience to describe how and why to cultivate more love, compassion, joy, and equanimity—the four “divine abodes” of traditional Buddhism.

Seppälä, E. M., Simon-Thomas, E., Brown, S. L., Worline,  M. C., Cameron, C. D., & Doty, J. R. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. The first academic treatise on the science of compassion to date, this handbook includes chapters from leading scientists on the latest theories and findings related to the antecedents and impacts of human compassion and how compassion can be cultivated for better health and wellbeing. 

Singer, T. & Bolz, M. (2013). Compassion: Bridging Practice and Science. Munich, Germany: Max Planck Society. This ebook, edited by leading social neuroscientist Tania Singer, presents key theories and research related to compassion from evolutionary, psychological, contemplative, and therapeutic points of view and the latest empirically-tested training programs designed to cultivate compassion. 

Batson, D. C. (2016). Empathy and Altruism. In K. W. Brown & M. R. Leary (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Hypo-egoic Phenomena: Theory and Research on the Quiet Ego (pp. 161-174). Oxford University Press. Author describes decades of research challenging the assumption that humans are wired to act out of self-interest and studies indicating human instincts for empathy and compassion and the connection to altruistic behavior. 

Brewer, J. A., Worhunsky, P. D., Gray, J. R., Tang, Y. Y., Weber, J., & Kober, H. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(50), 20254-20259. A study of brain activity of experienced meditators during three different types of meditation, including loving-kindness, found deactivation of the default-mode network consistent with a down regulation of self-referential neural processing and mind-wandering previously correlated with unhappiness. 

Brown, S. L., Nesse, R. M., Vinokur, A. D., & Smith, D. M. (2003). Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: Results from a prospective study of mortality. Psychological Science, 14(4), 320–327. Study of older married adults found a significant reduction in mortality in individuals who reported providing instrumental support to others but not in individuals receiving such support. 

Buchanan T. W., Bagley, S. L., Stansfield, R. B., & Preston, S.D. (2012). The empathic, physiological resonance of stress. Social Neuroscience. 7(2):191-201.  Study found correlation between empathic concern for others and increased stress. Studies of this type are critical to understanding how compassion may be a more adaptive response to suffering. 

Condon, P., Desbordes, G., Miller, W. B., & DeSteno, D. (2013); Meditation increases compassionate responses to suffering. Psychological Science, 24(10), 2125-2127. Study participants who engaged in an eight-week secular meditation training program either in compassion meditation or mindfulness meditation showed increased compassionate responses to another’s suffering as compared to a control group that received no meditation training. 

Dutton, J. E., Workman, K. M., & Hardin, A. E. (2014). Compassion at work. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 277-304. Article reviews research into the impact of compassionate interactions in the workplace on those who are party to the interactions and on those who witness them.  

Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045-1062.  Study found that participants in a loving-kindness meditation practice group showed increased daily experiences of positive emotions, which, in turn, produced increases in other personal resources predictive of increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms. 

Gilbert, P. (2014). The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53(1), 6-41. Developer of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) describes its roots in evolutionary brain biology and its purpose to increase an individual’s capacity to cultivate compassion and regulate emotions for mental health and social wellbeing. 

Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010). Compassion: an evolutionary analysis and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 351. Authors review the arguments underlying the hypothesis that compassion evolved as a distinct affective experience whose primary function is to facilitate cooperation and protection of the weak and those who suffer. They also explore how compassion shapes moral judgment and action, varies across different cultures, and activites certain neural patterns.

Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J., (2008). Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion, 8(5), 720–724. Study showed even a brief loving-kindness meditation exercise increased feelings of social connection and positivity toward strangers on both explicit and implicit levels. 

Isgett, S. F., Algoe, S. B., Boulton, A. J., Way, B. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2016). Common variant in OXTR predicts growth in positive emotions from loving-kindness training. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 73, 244-251. Study’s findings are among the first to show how genetic differences in oxytocin signaling may affect an individual's capacity to boost positive emotions through a socially-focused intervention, in this case a loving-kindness meditation exercise.

Kang, Y., Gray, J. R., & Dovidio, J. F. (2014). The nondiscriminating heart: loving-kindness meditation training decreases implicit intergroup bias. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1306-1313. Study tested the effect of loving-kindness meditation training on improving implicit attitudes toward members of stigmatized social outgroups. Participants were randomly assigned to a six-week loving-kindness practice, a six-week loving-kindness discussion, or waitlist control. The loving-kindness practice group was the only one to show decreases in implicit bias toward the stigmatized outgroups (as measured by Implicit Association Test). 

Kearney, D. J., Malte, C. A., McManus, C., Martinez, M. E., Felleman, B., & Simpson, T. L. (2013). Loving‐kindness meditation for posttraumatic stress disorder: A pilot study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26(4), 426-434. Study of loving-kindness meditation intervention with veterans showed reduced symptoms of PTSD and depression in study participants. 

Kemeny, M. E., Foltz, C., Cavanagh, J. F., Cullen, M., Giese-Davis, J., Jennings, P., ... & Ekman, P. (2012). Contemplative/emotion training reduces negative emotional behavior and promotes prosocial responses. Emotion, 12(2), 338-350. Compared to a control group, study participants who received an eight-week intensive meditation/emotion regulation training intervention reported reduced trait negative affect, rumination, depression, and anxiety and increased trait positive affect and mindfulness. In a behavioral task the same group showed increased recognition of emotions in others and appeared to activate cognitive networks associated with compassion.

Kirby, J. N., Tellegen, C. L., & Steindl, S. R. (2017). A meta-analysis of compassion-based interventions: Current state of knowledge and future directions. Behavior Therapy, 48(6), 778-792. This meta-analysis examined the effects of compassion-based interventions from  21 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of the previous 12 years. Results supported potential benefits of compassion-based interventions on a range of outcomes. Future directions suggested include the need for improved methodological rigor, larger scale RCTs, increased specificity on the targets of compassion, and examination of compassion across the lifespan. 

Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S., Lamm, C., & Singer, T. (2012). Functional neural plasticity and associated changes in positive affect after compassion training. Cerebral Cortex, 23(7), 1552-1561. Study measured functional neural and subjective responses to witnessing the distress of others in a newly developed task (Socio-affective Video Task) and found neural activation and subjective responses associated with negative affect in initial empathic response but associated with positive affect after deliberate cultivation of compassion.

Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S; Ricard, M., & Singer, T. (2013). Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(6): 873–879. Study of neural activations during empathy-induced conditions and after compassion training indicated that training in compassion may overcome empathic distress and strengthen resilience in response to others’ suffering.

Kok, B. E., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2010). Upward spirals of the heart: Autonomic flexibility, as indexed by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness. Biological Psychology, 85(3), 432–436. Study on the connection between vagal tone and social connectedness showed evidence of an “‘upward spiral’ relationship of reciprocal causality” in which higher vagal tone and greater psychosocial wellbeing are reciprocally and prospectively predictive of one another.

Konrath, S., Fuhrel-Forbis, A., Lou, A., & Brown, S. (2012). Motives for volunteering are associated with mortality risk in older adults. Health Psychology, 31(1), 87–96. Study examined how participants’ motives for volunteering impacted their mortality risks four years later. Results indicate that volunteers live longer than non-volunteers, but only if they volunteer for other-oriented (i.e., compassionate as opposed to selfish or other) reasons.

Lamm, C., Decety, J., & Singer, T. (2011). Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain. Neuroimage, 54(3), 2492-2502. Study showing the similarities in brain activation between an empathic experience of pain and a direct experience of pain provides some of the neural bases for empathic distress, a physiological state that may lead to stress and inflammation, which is counter to the calm and restful physiological state that has been associated with compassion. 

Leaviss, J., & Uttley, L. (2015). Psychotherapeutic benefits of compassion-focused therapy: An early systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 45(5), 927-945. Authors reviewed fourteen studies on the effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy as a mental health intervention and concluded that most showed favorable results and showed particular efficacy for those high in self-criticism.

Leiberg, S., Klimecki, O., & Singer, T. (2011). Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game. PloS One, 6(3), e17798. Study showed evidence for the positive impact of short-term compassion training on prosocial behavior towards strangers in a training-unrelated task involving a new prosocial game, the Zurich Prosocial Game (ZPG).

Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. PloS One, 3(3), e1897. This groundbreaking study was one of the first to use FMRI brain imaging to show that compassion can be cultivated with resulting changes in brain activation. 

Pace, T. W., Negi, L. T., Adame, D. D., Cole, S. P., Sivilli, T. I., Brown, T. D., ... & Raison, C. L. (2009). Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34(1), 87-98. Study involved 61 healthy adults randomized to six weeks of training in compassion meditation or participation in a health discussion control group followed by exposure to the Trier social stress test (TSST). Results showed that engagement in compassion meditation may reduce stress-induced immune and behavioral responses.

Preston, S. D., & De Waal, F. B. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(1), 1-20. Article describes the theory and research underlying an evolutionary understanding of empathy beyond “inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism” and that explains different levels of empathy across individuals, species, stages of development, and situations. This research fundamental research on empathy is crucial to understanding compassion as a distinct state. 

Porges, S. W. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74, 116–143. Researcher who developed polyvagal theory describes the neurophysiological mechanisms and activations of the autonomic nervous system, including those involving the vagal nerve, which are critical to an understanding of the biological bases of compassion.

Singer, T., & Klimecki, O. M. (2014). Empathy and compassion. Current Biology, 24(18), R875-R878. Authors provide an overview of research into the neural and physiological antecedents and biobehavioral correlates of empathy as compared to compassion. 

Stellar, J. E., Cohen, A., Oveis, C., & Keltner, D. (2015). Affective and physiological responses to the suffering of others: Compassion and vagal activity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(4), 572. Studies explored the peripheral physiological changes associated with the experience of compassion and showed that activation in the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system through the vagus nerve is a critical component. 

Roeser, R. W., Colaianne, B. A., & Greenberg, M. A. (2018). Compassion and human development: Current approaches and future directions. Research in Human Development, 15(3-4), 238-251. The authors provide an overview of scholarship and research into the development and cultivation of compassion and the implications for greater individual and social wellbeing across the human lifespan. The authors particularly emphasize the need for more study on and applications of compassion training in children and adolescents.

Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. Science, 311(5765), 1301-1303. Often cited in support of a human instinct for compassion, this article describes research showing that human children as young as 18 months will help non-kin in a variety of situations with no benefit to themselves and that chimpanzees show a similar inclination though less robust and more primitive.

Weng, H. Y., Fox, A. S., Hessenthaler, H. C., Stodola, D. E., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). The role of compassion in altruistic helping and punishment behavior. PLoS One, 10(12), e0143794. Two studies investigated the relationship between compassion and altruistic behavior and showed that compassion is related to greater altruistic helping of victims and is not associated with or may mitigate altruistic punishment of transgressors.

Weng, H. Y., Fox, A. S., Shackman, A. J., Stodola, D. E., Caldwell, J. Z., Olson, M. C., ... & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering. Psychological science, 24(7), 1171-1180. Study examined whether short-term compassion training increased altruistic behavior and whether individual differences in altruism are associated with training-induced changes in neural responses to suffering.  Results suggest that compassion can be cultivated with training and that greater altruistic behavior may emerge from increased engagement of neural systems implicated in understanding the suffering of other people, executive and emotional control, and reward processing.

Davis, J. L. (2005). The Science of Good Deeds: The 'helper's high' could help you live a longer, healthier life. WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/science-good-deeds#1. Author describes latest studies connecting helping behaviors to better health. 

DeSteno, D. (2012, July 14). Compassion made easy. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-compassion.html. Professor of psychology at Northeastern University describes scientific studies into the connection between compassion and behavior and the question of whether compassion can be cultivated.  

DeSteno, D. (2015, July 21). The Kindness Cure. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/mindfulness-meditation-empathy-compassion/398867/. Professor of psychology at Northeastern University describes studies of mindfulness meditation as a means of cultivating greater compassion. 

Doty, J. R. (2012, August 7). The science of compassion. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-r-doty-md/science-of-compassion_b_1578284.html. Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University describes the importance of compassion in human health and life and its scientific study. 

Campbell, L. (2017, February 13). Compassion meditation is the best type to practice if happiness is your goal. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/02/12/compassion-meditation-is-the-best-type-to-practise-if-happines_a_21712408/. Author describes the evidence connecting compassion meditation with better health and wellbeing. 

Colino, S. (2016, March 23). The Surprising Benefits of Compassion Meditation. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved from https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-03-23/the-surprising-benefits-of-compassion-meditation. Author describes studies connecting Buddhist contemplative practices designed to cultivate compassion to improved mood and wellbeing. 

Geirland, J. (2006, February 1). Buddha on the Brain. Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2006/02/dalai/. Author describes the history of recent collaborations between the Dalai Lama and other experienced Buddhist meditators and neuroscientists such as Richard Davidson to study the science of meditation and its impacts on the brain. 

Golman, D. (2015, June 23). Wired for kindness: Science shows we prefer compassion, and our capacity grows with practice. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/06/23/wired-for-kindness-science-shows-we-prefer-compassion-and-our-capacity-grows-with-practice/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7d98242a9e44. Psychologist and science writer Goleman describes various compassion science studies and programs designed to cultivate kindness and compassion in children and adults. 

Kelsey, E.  (2017, August 18). What Humpback Whales Can Teach Us About Compassion. Hakai Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-humpback-whales-teach-us-compassion-180964545/. Author describes evidence of altruistic helping behaviors in animal species and what it may indicate about human instincts for compassion and kindness. 

Kyte, L. (2017, May 3). Thupten Jinpa, Voice for Compassion. Lions Roar. Retrieved from https://www.lionsroar.com/thupten-jinpa-voice-for-compassion/. Author profiles the life and work of Jinpa, a Buddhist scholar and leader in the emerging fields of compassion science and contemplative science. 

Mautz, S. (2017, November 13). Science Reveals 11 Reasons Compassion at Work Matters (Just In Time for World Kindness Day). Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/on-world-kindness-day-science-shows-why-compassion-matters-at-work-and-how-to-display-it.html. Author references research on compassion and provides advice on how to make use of this research in the workplace. 

Patterson, C. (2012, December 4). The Science of Compassion. Independent.  Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-science-of-compassion-8376224.html. Author describes the integration of traditional contemplative scholarship and practice with hard science to determine the impacts and antecedents of compassion and empathy. 

Seppala, E. (2013, May 1). The science of compassion (blog). Retrieved from https://emmaseppala.com/the-science-of-compassion/. Science Director of the Stanford Center for Compassion And Altruism Research And Education describes the latest research findings from compassion science. 

Compassion - with Professor Paul Gilbert

Action for Happiness (Producer). (2017, April 21). Compassion with Professor Paul Gilbert (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2skAMI8c-4.

Professor and founder of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) Paul Gilbert covers the science of compassion and its implications for happiness in this talk filmed at an Action for Happiness event in London.

Big Think (Producer). (2015, May 22). The Science of Compassion: Kindness Is a Fundamental Human Trait (Video). Retrieved from https://bigthink.com/videos/science-of-compassion. Thupten Jinpa, Buddhism expert and developer of Compassion Cultivation Training at Stanford University, discusses the latest scientific understanding of compassion. 

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (Producer). (December 19, 2016). Paul Bloom: Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhCGmDJQRpc. Yale researcher Paul Bloom discusses the theory and research underlying his arguments against empathy in favor of what he calls “rational compassion.”

CCARE at Stanford University (Producer). Featured Videos. Retrieved from http://ccare.stanford.edu/video/featured-videos/. The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University posts videos from its conferences, speaker series, and other events that feature scientists, CCARE staff, CCARE director James Doty, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and other experts and researchers. 

CCARE at Stanford University (Producer). (2014, November 10). Portals to Compassion: Stephen Porges (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvdMleudqaA. Research professor of psychiatry Porges discusses research and theories on the importance of the vagal nerve in cultivating compassion. 

Greater Good Science Center (Producer). (2012, July). Dacher Keltner on the Evolutionary Roots of Compassion (Video). Retrieved from  https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/video/item/dacher_keltner_the_evolutionary_roots_of_compassion. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and founder and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, discusses the science underlying the human instinct for compassion. 

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (Producer) (2016, October 21). Studies on Compassion Meditation (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=il7W3A8uRxk. Neuroscientist Richard Davidson discusses scientific research on compassion meditation and how compassion-related mental training can change the brain and improve wellbeing. 

NPR (producer). (2018, December 24). The Science of Compassion. Hidden Brain (podcast). Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2018/12/24/679805551/the-science-of-compassion. In this episode of Hidden Brain, podcast host Shankar Vedantam explores the science of compassion and the impact of acts of kindness on giver and receiver.

TED (producer). (2013, October 2). Dr. James Doty at TEDxUNPlaza: The Science of Compassion (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJW5-0tjFDg. Doty, founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University and professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses the science of compassion.

World Economic Forum (Producer). (2015, March 9). The Neuroscience of Compassion: Tania Singer (Video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-hKS4rucTY. Social neuroscientist and psychologist Singer describes her research and the science underlying brain plasticity and the human capacity to cultivate more compassionate decision making to improve health and society at large.

Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Founded in 2001 and directed by Berkeley professor of psychology Dacher Keltner, this center promotes a more thriving, resilient, and compassionate society by supporting and promoting scientific research on wellbeing and providing education on related topics through its website, events, and Greater Good magazine. 

Center for Healthy Minds. Founded and directed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by neuroscientist Richard Davidson, an expert on the neural bases of emotion, wellbeing, and human flourishing, this center supports and promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration and studies to determine the scientific bases of wellbeing across the lifespan. 

Mind & Life Institute. This institute was founded in 1987 to advance human wellbeing and reduce suffering by bridging gaps between scientific research and contemplative practices and study. The non-profit supports and promotes research, seminars, and conferences and provides resources to better understand the mind through contemplative sciences and by addressing wide-ranging topics such as addiction, ecology, ethics, altruism, economics, and emotions. 

Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. Dr. James Doty, Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, directs this center (CCARE), which was founded at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2008. Its purpose is to advance scientific research and education related to compassion and altruistic behavior. 

Compassionate Mind Foundation. This foundation supports study, training, and dissemination of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), a form of psychotherapy developed by psychiatry professor Paul Gilbert from research on developmental psychology, emotional neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and Buddhism.

Compassion Institute. This organization supports and promotes dissemination of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) an eight-week program that integrates traditional contemplative practices with contemporary psychology and scientific research. The CCT protocol and curriculum was principally authored by Thupten Jinpa and developed with a team of contemplative scholars, clinical psychologists, and researchers at Stanford University. 

The Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. This center at Emory University was founded to promote social, emotional, and ethical development in students from preschool through university. It also supports further study and dissemination of the Cognitively-Based Compassion Training program.

Cultivating Emotional Balance. This organization and website supports and promotes the Cultivating Emotional Balance training program (CEB), a secular protocol principally authored by Paul Ekman—a world-renowned emotion researcher and Professor Emeritus at the University of California San Francisco—and Alan Wallace, a Buddhist scholar, in consultation with the Dalai Lama and the Mind and Life institute. CEB is designed to help individuals, particularly those in high-stress occupations cultivate compassion and emotional balance for greater resilience and wellbeing. 

Compassionate Schools Project. This project (CSP), a partnership between the University of Virginia and the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, KY, is the most comprehensive empirical study ever undertaken of a 21st century health and wellness curriculum in an elementary or secondary school setting. The CSP curriculum applies a mind-body approach to integrate academic achievement, mental fitness, health, and compassionate character. The research study is likely to have a major impact on children’s education nationwide.

Katherine Ludwig is a writer and editor for the Contemplative Sciences Center.